Hi,
I’ve come to realize that I haven’t done an update on my flying journey lately. I think that it would be good to talk about the connections I’ve been making with music and flying. I’ve been using some music practice techniques when I have been flying.
I guess I should first off talk about how my flying has been going in general. I have been making a lot of progress since the last time I have blogged about flying. It has been quiet the adventure. These are all the things I have been trying to perfect like slower flight, talking on the radio, ground reference maneuvers, emergency simulations, following the traffic pattern, etc. At first talking on the radio made me a little nervous, but my instructor has gotten me into the habit of saying what I want to say before I talk to the radio, so I know what’s truly going on and that seems to work for me for the most part. One of the hardest things I’m learning is landings, I swear I just work on them again and again and again, just trying to get some progress on it. Saying this, I have gotten rather good in comparison with doing the traffic pattern. I need the most work on the round out and flare. I’ve learned that having a good and even descent is key along with sight picture.
And this is where I’ve found that some of my music practicing techniques come in. Part of it is being in the right mindset. Having the growth mindset, where instead of being frustrated about something not going the way you wanted it to go, you ask yourself why something went wrong and what you can do to fix it next time. Another thing is to have positive goals. Instead of telling yourself to avoid doing something in the future, tell yourself to focus on the positive. An example of this would be when I keep on ascending and don’t stop at a certain altitude and don’t realize it, I would mentally prepare myself in the future to stay at my altitude and make sure ahead of time to account for that. Another thing I’ve been told with music is that it’s not about your actions, but the way you think. So, you should just visualize and think everything through before you put it into effect. That way, you can make mistakes in your head, planning things out, recognize them, and fix them all before you perform an action. The key though is to remember this and to recognize the patterns of when your mistakes come up. A good way to do this in music, is to write it in your part, if you always forget an accidental, you can write it in and that will be your reminder. I have yet to find a good technique for reminders though when flying.
Another update, I finally scheduled and took my medical appointment and I am all good, which is now one less thing I have to do or worry about.
Flying has been such a great experience and I am ever grateful to have the support of the FMA community. Sometimes while doing the preflight inspection I find myself smiling for no reason, and then I realize it is because I am so happy and excited to go flying.
